Aya groaned as she opened her eyes. Her head felt like it was going to split in two. She felt like death. She sighed as she recalled what had happened. Defeating Arlong, the villagers threw a huge party in celebration, drinking and eating a lot of food, running away from Sanji when he asked her to dance with him. Aya blushed, mentally kicking herself. Why didn't she just dance with him! Why was she such a coward at these sorts of things!? Kissing Usopp. Aya's eyes widen as she remembered the feeling of his lips pressed against hers. Fireworks were booming and bursting in bright colors as they were thundering in the sky. Did it really happen or was it a dream? But it felt so real though.
Aya slowly sat up, in which she instantly regretted. She covered her mouth and quickly got up, slamming open the door, running outside on the deck. She saw Sanji in front of her. He smiled as soon as he saw her.
"There she is! Rise and shine, beautiful!"
"Outta the way!" Aya quickly pushed the lovesick forlorn cook to the side and ran over to the side of the ship. She hurled the last remaining contents from lasts nights party over the railings. She wiped her mouth with her hand. Why is it always carrots? She doesn't even like them. Aya heard footsteps approaching her and she turned her head to see Sanji placing a glass of water on the railing as he stood beside her.
"I'd figure that you would wake up like this. Here, this is the best thing for a hangover." He slid the glass over to her. Aya took it and drank a few sips, feeling the cool liquid wash down her throat.
"Thanks." She smiled, softly up at him.
"Don't mention it." Sanji replied and smiled back.
"Hey, Aya!" Aya jumped, startled, when she heard Usopp's voice. She looked down to see him waving back up at her. Aya slowly waved back, a little confused. Strange. He was a lot more outgoing than his usual self this morning. Normally, he was a lot more timid and soft spoken.
Usopp was sitting on the deck, working on some of his special pellets. Nami was getting the morning paper as one of Morgan's messenger seagulls flapped on board. Zoro was laying on the deck on his back, not too far away from the group. From the corner of her eye, Aya saw Luffy slowly creeping towards the tangerines, from Bellemere's orchard, that Nami had planted on top of the ship. Aya walked down the stairs, meeting up with the rest of the crew.
"Well, look who decide to finally wake up." Nami smiled.
"How long was I out?" Aya asked.
"It's already noon." Zoro replied. Aya's mouth dropped a little as she looked at him in surprise. She practically slept half the day away! She turned her head back to Usopp who was still tinkering with his equipment and walked over to him. Usopp tensed up as he heard her footsteps coming closer. Oh crap, what do I do?! What do I say to her!? Does she even remember what happened last night?!
"Hey, Usopp, whatcha working on?" Usopp blinked as he broke out of train of thoughts. His eyes widen as he saw Aya's face in front of his, leaning over him.
"Just some special technique stars." Usopp told her as he tried to focus anywhere but her eyes.
"Oh, okay, cool!" Aya smiled. Usopp felt his heart beating much more faster. Should he bring up that they kissed? No, definitely not in front of the others. That's too embarrassing. They would never let him live it down. But, why wasn't she saying anything about it? Aya blinked as she turned her head, looking at him confused. Usopp sighed when he realized that Aya didn't remember what had happen.
"Usopp, is there something wrong?" Aya asked, a little concerned when she saw his face drop a little. The sniper's eyes widen and he quickly looked at her.
"N-No! It's nothing really! I was just thinking of something really stupid. Don't worry about it!" Usopp tried to reassure her. Aya frowned, not believing him. He was hiding something. Did something really did happen last night and she didn't know about it?
"Usopp, tell me the truth. Last night, during the party, did something really happen? Was it a dream or did we really kiss-" Yes, we did. Is what he really wanted to tell her. Usopp's eyes widen, but before he could say anything Nami interrupted them. The two turned their heads looking at the navigator who had an angry scowl on her face, yelling at the messenger bird.
"You raised your prices again? That's a little steep, don't you think? Raise your prices again and I'll stop paying." Nami said, paying for the paper. The bird quickly nodded it's head and flew away.
"What's the big deal? It's just one paper." Usopp replied, ignoring Aya's question.
"Just one paper? I buy these every day." Nami told him.
"Yeah, but there's no need to save every last beli so you can buy back your village from Arlong, you know? You can finally stop obsessing about money." Usopp pointed out.
"You're so stupid! Now that all that stuff is over, I'm saving money for me now. I'm not going to become one of those pirates who can't even afford to dress out!" Nami shouted.
"Calm down, I'm in the middle of developing my special Tabasco star!" Usopp hissed.
"An eyeful of this will make any man cry." Just as he was to pour the hot sauce into the pellet, Luffy smacked into him making Usopp lose his concentration. The tabasco dropped into his eyes. Usopp screamed in pain. His felt like they were on fire, and he rolled around on the deck. Luffy sat up, pouting.
"Aw, come on! I just want one-" He whined.
"No! This is Nami's tangerine orchard and I won't let anyone lay a finger on it!" Sanji shouted. He turned to her smiling at her with hearts in his eyes. "Nami, can you see how well I'm protecting your trees!"
"Yes, you're doing very well." Nami smiled as she continued to read her paper.
"Sanji's getting used. That poor bastard." Zoro murmured.
"I only want one tangerine, just give it to me! You're so mean!" Luffy grumbled angrily.
"No!" The cook shouted back.
"The world's sure is a turbulent place. They just had another coup d'état in Vira." she read out loud.
As Nami was continuing to read the paper, two pages fell out of it and fell on the deck. Luffy looked down at the pages, wondering what they were.
"What's that?" He asked.
"WHAT?!" Everyone shouted all at once, in shock.
"Alright, guys! We're wanted criminals!" Luffy exclaimed, happily.
"Wanted dead or alive. $30,000,000 million belis?!" Usopp exclaimed.
"That's a whole lot of belis!" Luffy grinned, proudly.
"Check it out, I'll be seen all over the world!" Usopp smiled as he held up Luffy's wanted poster. Sanji rushed over to him.
"What?! They put long nose in but left me out!? Where are you? I don't see you anywhere, you're not there!" He shouted. Usopp chuckled as he pointed behind Luffy to show him standing behind him. It was the back of the sniper's head.
"It's the back of your head. It's not so great." Sanji grumbled.
"Aw, don't be so glum. You don't have to be a captain to get your picture on one of these things." Usopp replied. Sanji's eyes widen, surprised.
"Is that true?!" He shouted.
"Yeah, just work really hard!" Usopp said, while Sanji looked steamed by his remark.
"Hey, Aya's got one too!" Nami said as she held up Aya's wanted poster as well. Aya took it from her, looking at it. Everyone inched closer to get a better look as well.
"Hey, why do you have a high bounty than me?! It should be the same!" Luffy frowned.
"I guess you'll just have to work harder next time!" Aya laughed.
"There's more..." Zoro said, calmly.
Everyone saw that Aya's bounty which had $30,000,001. But, instead of dead or alive, it was marked alive.
"Alive? That's unusual." Nami murmured confused. "I wonder why."
"Hey, it's no big deal. I was a former Marine. They probably want to give me "fair trial" before sending me to the firing squad for execution." Aya explained. Usopp's eyes widen.
"F-Firing squad?!" He sputtered, nervously.
"Come to think of it, why did you join the Marines?" Sanji asked her.
"Yeah, we hardly anything about you or Luffy. Why did you choose different paths?" Nami asked as well.
"This is boring." Luffy walked away from the group, and hopped onto the ship's figurehead, staring out at the sea.
"Luffy, wait! We want to know!" Nami called out to the straw hat captain. But, he ignored her.
"Okay, okay, okay. If I tell you, will you get off my case about it." Aya said to the three crew mates. Nami, Zoro, and Usopp all nodded their heads, eagerly waiting to hear the two's backstory. Aya sighed. "As you know, Luffy and I didn't really have anyone growing up. Just Shanks and his crew and a few people on the island. We don't know if our parents are still alive or dead. But, I'm just going to assume that they're dead."
"Why's that?" Nami asked.
"Well, we've never heard anything from them. Never received any letters or visits. As far as I'm concerned, they're dead to me." Aya told them.
"So who decided who should be captain?" Sanji asked.
"We gambled on that with my pirate coin. Luffy betted on heads, I said tails. I lost, simple as that." Aya told him. The three mouths dropped a little in disbelief as they looked at her stunned. All this time, Aya could've been captain instead of Luffy? Fate was really strange, indeed.
"So, why did you join the Marines?" Usopp asked her.
"It wasn't by choice. I was forced to join. I only learned what I needed to know to survive out here. Just before my promotion, I used this as an distraction and took the chance to escape by jumping off the wall from the district that I was assigned at, stole a small rowboat and met up with Luffy a few days later. And here we are." Aya finished as she explained.
"Just how high were you in the ranks?" Nami asked her.
"It doesn't matter now." Aya replied.
"Fair enough, but is this going to be a problem later on? Do you still have ties with the Marines?" Zoro questioned her. Aya shook her head, looking at him.
"Like I said before, It was never my choice to join. I never wanted to begin with. So, no, I don't." she told him.
"If we're done. Let's go to the Grand Line!" Luffy shouted.
"Yet again you don't know how grim our situation really is! This means all of our lives will be in constant danger!" Nami shouted at him.
"Isn't it already?" Aya replied. Nami sighed.
"Okay, this is not time to be relaxing in the East Blue."
Zoro leaned back against the railings thinking to himself while the others were talking about on what to do next. $30,000,000 belis...with that amount I bet that headquarters has taken action. Not to mention that there will be bounty hunters to deal with.
Sanji headed towards the kitchen to start cooking up lunch. Zoro went back to take a nap, Nami was continuing to read her paper, Luffy, Ussop and Aya were talking together when Aya spotted a ship slowly sailing in front of them.
"Hey, doesn't that ship look familiar?" Aya asked. Luffy and Usopp both saw the ship with Marine sails as it sailed towards them at full speed. The ship was in rough shape. It had holes and rips on the sails.
"Looks like they've just came out of battle. That thing barely floats." Luffy replied.
"That's a real shame. Putting scrap ships in the sea." Usopp said as well. The group saw a familiar face as the Marine lieutenant Iron Fist Fullbody .
"This is not a scrap ship! Are you guys blind?! Have you forgotten the face of Iron Fist Fullbody!" The Marine shouted, furiously.
"Name doesn't ring a bell." Aya smirked. The Marine narrowed his eyes at her.
"You bitch."
"Oh yeah, you're that Marine guy from before! Are you stranded? Need some help?" Luffy asked, now realizing who he was.
"Quit fooling around. Our meeting spells the end for you! Monkey D. Luffy and Monkey D. Aya, you're under arrest!" The Marine shouted as he held up Luffy's and Aya's wanted posters.
"Yep, that's me alright!" Luffy grinned.
"And the back of my head!" Usopp add in as well.
"It says dead or alive," The Marine made a smug evil smirk.
"Yeah, but mine says alive." Aya replied.
"It doesn't say how much alive to bring you back." He remarked.
"You bastard." Aya gritted her teeth as she glared at him. She was already getting annoyed by this man.
"Now, take aim men!" Fullbody signaled his men to aim the cannons at the Merry.
"What's all that noise, huh?" Zoro murmured to himself as he woke up from his nap. He got up and headed over to the port side to see what was going on.
"I guess they're going to shoot." Luffy replied.
"They're aiming right at us!" Usopp screamed.
"I got this! Just leave to me!" Luffy grinned.
"Why don't you let me handle this, Luffy?" Zoro pushed Luffy away handing him to Usopp who then pulled the straw hat next to him, holding Luffy back.
"Yeah, relax. You just stay back here." The sniper replied.
"Whoa, hey!-" Luffy complained.
"Your story ends here!" The Lieutenant fired off a cannon at Zoro. The cannon ball was heading straight at him. Zoro pulled out his white sword and sliced it in half as it sailed to the other side of the ship, and into the sea.
"Whoa, that's cool!" Luffy exclaimed.
"That was awesome!" Aya shouted, impressed.
"That's impossible!" The Marine stammered in shock. He stepped back. Sanji was in the kitchen when he heard the explosion coming from outside. He frowned as he stopped what he was doing.
"Damn it, what's all that commotion going on?" Sanji questioned. He headed towards the door and walked out.
"I was trying to take a nap." Zoro growled as he narrowed his eyes at the Marine lieutenant.
"There's lots more where that came from! FIRE!" Fullbody shouted.
"This is bad, real bad." Luffy replied.
"What's bad?!" Usopp said nervously as he stepped back. The cannon backfired and exploded as it tried to fire another cannon ball.
"The cannon had cracks on it." Luffy explained.
"Oh, that is bad." Usopp replied.
"You insolent little brats! Never mock a former Marine and Lieutenant! We'll just have to go hand to hand!" The Marine growled as he jumped off from the ship and landed on the Merry. "Men, follow me!" He ordered his soldiers, who also jumped off as well, following him.
"Your heads are mine!" Fullbody shouted as he tried to attack Luffy and Aya. The soldiers tried to attack them as well but Zoro and Usopp fought against them, keeping the soldiers away from the two twins.
"Gum Gum Barrel!" Luffy punched the Marine, knocking him back. Aya landed a hard punch in the lieutenant's face, sending him flying into the side of the ship. As the Marine was about to get up, his eyes widen as he saw Sanji standing over him with a dark glare in his eyes.
"You got a lot of balls, tough guy. Having a fight during lunch, I should kill you!" The cook shouted. "Unless you made a reservation, I'll have to ask you to leave."
"Y-YOU?!" Fullbody screamed as he crawled away from him. His soldiers ran away, defeated, seeing that they were overpowered. They jumped overboard from the Merry and Fullbody quickly followed after them, screaming in terror as well.
"Guess he's done." Sanji replied.
"He was all talk." Aya said.
"Come on you guys, can you keep it down? Honestly, I can't even sit and read a paper!" Nami shouted.
"Nami, Aya! I finished preparing you a delicious meal!" Sanji smiled as he ran over to the two girls.
"Ooh! I can't wait!" Nami squealed joyfully. Sanji turned to Aya. "I also made your favorite too, Aya. A strawberry parfait!"
"I can't wait!" Aya smiled.
"That sounds great! What about us?!" Luffy shouted.
The news of Luffy and Aya's bounties began to spread fast like wildfire all throughout the sea, reaching from island to island. On one particular island, two pirates were on lookout when they spotted something coming up on the shore.
"What's that?" One of them questioned.
"Let me see." The other took the telescope and looked into it. His eyes widen in fear seeing that it was Hawk-eye Mihawk. The two pirates backed away as the warlord approached them.
"Why are you here?! Answer me, Hawk Eye!" One of the pirates demanded.
"Just calm down. Where is your leader? My business is with him." Hawk-eye said, calmly. "Camping out on an island. What a carefree man."
Through the deep forest jungle of the island, was Red Haired Shanks and his crew. One of the lookouts scrambled towards them, falling in front of Shanks. The captain placed a mug filled with rum down for him and the crew member quickly gulped it down. "B-Boss!" He stammered as he pointed behind him. "H-Hawk Eye!"
Shanks looked up to see the Pirate warlord with the other lookout pirate, who backed away from him as Hawk-Eye walked over to him. Shanks smirked.
"Hey there, Hawk Eye. For what do I owe the pleasure? Have you come to fight me? Cause you know I'm not feeling so good at the moment."
"Now that you've lost your left arm, I have no intention of settling the score." Hawk-Eye said to him and pulled out the two wanted posters of Luffy and Aya, showing it to Shanks and his crew. "I recently bumped into a couple of interesting pirates. Seeing them reminded me of a story that you used to tell. A story about a boy and girl. Two strange kids from a small village? Sound familiar?" Shank's eyes widen in shock.
"N-No way!" Yasopp stammered, shocked to see Luffy's and Aya's poster as well. Then he saw the back of Usopp's head behind Luffy in the poster. "I don't believe it. Is that Usopp? My boy is with them!"
"Luffy, Aya, they made it." Shanks smiled. He looked up at the pirate warlord in front of him. "Alright then Hawk Eye, in that case I'm afraid I can't let you just leave not now."
"Hawk Eye, drink up! Go on! Tilt it back! It's a celebration!" The red-haired pirate urged Hawk-Eye to drink.
"Why are you hungover?" Hawk-Eye asked.
"Oh, n-no way! Not anymore! Drink, drink, drink! Drink it that's it!" Shanks brushed him off with his hand. He stood up and shouted at the top of his lungs. "EVERYBODY! LET'S GET DRUNK!"
"Yeah, but wait, boss. I thought you said that you felt like crap because you drank too much last night?" One of his crew members replied.
"Don't be stupid. I can't not drink on a joyous day, like today!" Shanks said, happily.
"But the sun's still high." Hawk-Eye said.
"Don't sweat it! Time to party!" Shanks shouted.
Back on the Going Merry, the Straw Hats were gathered around while Nami was looking at a map. "We're getting closer. We've almost made to the Grand Line. It looks like the only way into it is here. Through a verse mountain." Nami told them.
"What a pain. There's got to be some way around that thing." Zoro sighed.
"There's not. From what the geezer told me, that's the only place to enter it." Sanji pointed out.
"How come?" Usopp asked.
"Cause it's really dangerous." Sanji replied.
"Yeah, but how come?!" Usopp insisted.
"I told you everything that I know Geez!" Sanji shouted.
"See the reason-" Nami started to speak when Luffy interrupted her.
"Hey, I got an idea! Why don't we just sail straight into it!?" He grinned.
"Are you really that clueless?" Nami said to him in disbelief, frowning.
"My way's sounds a lot fun. Plus, it's feels way better to just dive right into it, ya know?" Luffy said.
"Ugh, talking to you drives me completely insane!" Nami shouted at him.
"First off, we need to stop at an island. Time to pick up some meat! Need meat!" Luffy shouted, ignoring her. Nami pointed on the map to an island not to far from where they were.
"There's a famous city on this island, known as Loguetown." She explained.
"Loguetown? Why is it famous? They got delicious meat?" Luffy asked.
"I'm pretty sure I've heard of it before." Zoro said. "It's the city of the beginning and the end."
"Loguetown is where the former king of the pirates, Gol D. Roger was born and killed at." Aya said. Everyone looked at her, quietly. Luffy's eyes widen in surprise.
"That's where the king of the pirates died?" He asked, thinking to himself.
"Well?" Nami asked him. Luffy smiled.
"Yeah, let's do it." He told them. "This was the man who had the one piece. Everything the world has to offer. I need to see where he was born and executed at."
As everyone went off to do their own thing, Aya quickly grabbed Usopp by his wrist, just before he left. "Hey, what are you-" Aya quickly slammed her hand on Usopp's mouth and she dragged him away leading him down into the crew cabin. It was much more quieter away from the others so they wouldn't hear them.
"Okay, now that we're along tell me the truth." She replied. Usopp shifted his gaze away from hers, fidgeting with his hands, nervously. "You've been acting strange all day. One minute you're much happier when you saw me then the next your withdrawn and twiddling your fingers . So, just spit it out."
Usopp looked back at her, looking into Aya's eyes. He gulped and took in a deep breath and slowly nodded his head. "We did." He replied, making a nervous sheepish smile on his face. Aya's eyes widen, and she felt her getting hotter. Usopp began to grow more nervous by her quietness.
"You don't have to say anything. If you don't want to talk about this, it's fine. We can just forget that it ever happened! I mean, you have better options, way better than me." He told her. Aya looked back at him.
"But what if I told you that I didn't want to?" Aya spoke to him. Usopp's eyes widened. "What if I told that you mean something to me." Usopp rubbed his head, thinking of what to say. Well, what could he say after that? After she just poured her heart out to him like that.
"oh, wow, um, I wasn't expecting that." He laughed softly and hummed to himself. He felt Aya take his hands, holding them in hers.
"If you want, we can see where this goes. I don't know what will happen, but I do know one thing, I like you." Aya told him. Both of their hearts were beating faster in each other's chest, like it was going to burst out.
"If you're fine with this. Then, okay, let's do it." Usopp told her. "We can still be friends if it doesn't work out, right?"
"Of course! Nothing is going to become between us!" Aya smiled. "Now, we just have to figure out how to break the news to the others."
"Do we really have to?" Usopp asked. "I think Sanji and Zoro already know that something is up between us. I don't want them to kick my ass over this."
"Well, everyone's going to find out eventually." Aya told him.
"True." Usopp sighed. "Let's just get this over with."
"Don't worry, I'll protect you." Aya teased him. She pulled Usopp with her as the two headed up to the deck.
In a dark dimly lit room illuminated by celestial stars and moon patterns, an old woman was sitting in a chair front of a table draped in a dark purple cloth with crystal ball sitting in the center. In front of her was Aya's wanted poster as she stared down at it, with an unnerving smirk. She made a low chuckle.
"I have a feeling that we'll be meeting very soon. I wonder how this is going to play out?"
